I LOVE teaching preschool! I am now homeschooling my 3rd preschooler and I have learned a lot. Mainly, I don't do as much as I did with my first two. I have learned what is the most beneficial and that is all I do. I don't worry about teaching all the subjects. Preschoolers need time to play and imagine and pretend and listen to stories! Yes, preschoolers can learn a ridiculous amount of information. But they don't have to do it right away. And they can learn a ton in just a short amount of time each day. Reading to a preschooler is absolutely the most important part of their education. It covers all subjects and gives them a love for learning. Honestly, I think if you did no other schoolwork but read to a preschooler for at least an hour each day, it would be fine. Everything else can be learned easily in Kindergarten. With that said, I pretty much waited to start any preschool work til after Christmas with my little girl. She turns 5 in February and I really don't think children need to do much tablework before 5 years old. Yes, we read TONS of books everyday and did puzzles and used math manipulatives that she thought were all games. But I didn't do anything really structured until after Christmas.
Here is what our preschool day now looks like:
1. While eating breakfast, I go over our phonics cards. I have the lovely phonics cards from The Writing Road to Reading and I introduce a new one each day if I feel like she has mastered the previous ones. She thinks this is a game and enjoys telling me the 3 sounds that the letter "y" can make or all 4 sounds that "ou" can make. Then we do a few math flashcards from Rod and Staff. She isn't doing any math worksheets yet because I don't like her to have to write much because it is still hard work for her and I want her to enjoy math. But she likes these flash cards that ask what number comes before or after or which number is greater or smaller. And we use math manipulatives to count things (and she really likes to tell stories with our colored bears and pattern blocks). We also practice whatever poem we are currently memorizing over breakfast.
2. She pretty much plays for the next hour and a half. If the weather is good, we go outside and if not she just plays inside with her two-year old sister. Lots of imagining and pretending and cutting and coloring going on. It makes me smile! I wish I could say that I prepare crafts for them but my life is too crazy. I don't.
3. We read picture books for about 45 minutes (or until the 2 year old gets restless).
4. We practice our CC memory work songs for about 10 minutes. This is the only structured history, geography, english, etc that she gets. But don't forget about all the reading we do. It covers all the subjects. :)
5. We have lunch and then go outside (unless it is raining).
6. Naptime for the 2 year old and handwriting practice for my preschooler. We only write for about 10 minutes and she also colors the answers in her Explode the Code book at this time. I don't make her write in her Explode the Code. The only writing she does is handwriting practice. After this quick tablework, we take turns reading. I read her a chapter from whatever chapter book we are enjoying It is currently Besty-Tacy. Then she reads me a lesson from her reading lesson book or Language lesson book or a story from Dick and Jane or her McGuffy Primer. We go back and forth as I read a chapter and then she reads something short to me until her sister wakes up from her nap. Then school is over and she plays the rest of the day.
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label curriculum. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Monday, April 7, 2014
Supplementing our Classical Conversations curriculum and fitting it into our daily schedule
A friend recently e-mailed and asked about how I implement Classical Conversations into our homeschooling, especially with two little ones distracting us. She also asked about what materials I use for language and math. Here is my reply:
Classical Conversations has truly helped me with accountability and feeling like I am making definite progress with the girls. After trying out several math curriculums, I finally settled on Rod and Staff and love it. It begins very simply with the basic numbers and addition facts with much repetition. We went quickly through the first lessons, but I love that it really drills basic math facts to the point that my girls cannot possibly forget them. My 5 year old is a little ahead in math and the curriculum begins so simply that I decided to just do the 1st grade level for both of them right now. I just don't make my 5-year old do as much of the writing as my 6 year old because she grows weary of it. I'm not sure how long I will be able to teach them at the same level, but I am grateful for it right now because my teaching time is quite limited due to having a baby and 3 year old as well. The girls also do Explode the Code for phonics review and First Language Lessons. FLL does not take long so I also do Language Lessons For Little Ones with my 5 year old and Language Lessons for the very Young with my 6 year old by Sandi Queen just because I like it so much.
I'll be honest, some days we get a lot done and some days we don't. Learning the Classical Conversations info is actually the easiest part because there are songs for each memory work and we just take a break and dance and sing together when we are tired of doing our "proper" schoolwork :) My 3 year old loves the songs also so I use my trifold board and they take turns picking out the song they want to sing and dance to next. My baby just crawls all over us on the floor while we do this.
Our typical schedule is quite flexible because my baby is not a great morning napper. We have 4 basic parts of our homeschool day and they occur in any order depending on how the youngest 2 kids are doing:
1. Worksheets
2. Table Teaching (Math and Spelling Lesson)
3. Couch Lessons (Language Lessons, Read-a-Louds, and Reading Lessons) -- sometimes these are broken up into two different time periods... I often get the big girls up early from rest time to do their reading lesson and read-a-louds if we didn't get to finish them earlier.
4. Classical Conversation Review
I usually place all their worksheets (mainly math, map tracing, and Explode the Code) in a clipboard for them by their places at the tabel in the morning. They can choose to do them first thing while waiting for breakfast and for their turn to go potty and get dressed or they can choose to wait and do the worksheets during rest-time. Then, when the baby is napping, we do "table lessons" (math and spelling review). When she is awake, we do Language Lessons, reading lessons, and read-a-louds while snuggled together on the couch or floor and the baby plays around us. Some days it is easy to get it done but on bad teething days the baby is fussing the entire time and I have to wear her in the carrier while I teach.
My 3 year old is also a wild card. She currently loves to color the Explode the Code worksheets her sisters do, so they pass them to her once completed. She also has a princess magnet set and a felt set that she often does at the table or other puzzles. If she gets bored, I give the big girls a break and do a language lesson with her from the Language Lessons for Little Ones (#1). She loves to do what her sisters do and she listens to the poems and talks about the pictures and tells me her letters. We just do any of the writing part orally.
I also utilize the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System with our CC work -- I buy the pre-made memory work cards at the beginning of the year and each night at the diner table the girls answer several questions before being excused from the table. This memory box actually contains a number of different things we are trying to remember: character traits, manners, phonograms, addition flashcards, scriptures, CC work, and catechism questions. I cannot recommend a memory box highly enough. We would not remember last year's work at all were it not for this box. My husband also appreciates hearing the different things we are learning.
We also still utilize the Sonlight read-aloud list and I try to request those books from the library each week.
My 3 year old is also a wild card. She currently loves to color the Explode the Code worksheets her sisters do, so they pass them to her once completed. She also has a princess magnet set and a felt set that she often does at the table or other puzzles. If she gets bored, I give the big girls a break and do a language lesson with her from the Language Lessons for Little Ones (#1). She loves to do what her sisters do and she listens to the poems and talks about the pictures and tells me her letters. We just do any of the writing part orally.
I also utilize the Charlotte Mason Scripture Memory System with our CC work -- I buy the pre-made memory work cards at the beginning of the year and each night at the diner table the girls answer several questions before being excused from the table. This memory box actually contains a number of different things we are trying to remember: character traits, manners, phonograms, addition flashcards, scriptures, CC work, and catechism questions. I cannot recommend a memory box highly enough. We would not remember last year's work at all were it not for this box. My husband also appreciates hearing the different things we are learning.
We also still utilize the Sonlight read-aloud list and I try to request those books from the library each week.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Teaching my girls to read...
A lot of parents cringe at the thought of homeschooling because the thought of teaching their child to read is daunting. I've found the opposite to be quite true... it is one of the most exciting and thrilling things I've ever done! It is such a joy to finally see all those sounds click in my preschooler's mind and see the light come on. The excitement is so contagious! I've learned a lot and used many resources in teaching my first 2 children to read so I thought I would share the books that helped my girls the most.
1. The Reading Lesson Book:
Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading -- this book makes it easy. It teaches all the rules as the child needs to know them. I will admit that it wasn't my girls' favorite initially (because reading is hard work at first and the font is small) but they grew to like it. It calmed my worries because I was afraid that I would forget to teach something important.
and/or
Alphaphonics -- this book has bigger letters so my girls usually like it more initially. It takes a while to get through the first page, but after that, reading has begun! We usually start with this book for a while, but then it gets monotonous so we switch to Ordinary Parents. Once reading has begun, I usually do one reading "lesson" and have them read one "real" book to me each day as well.
Note: These simple reading lesson books are sufficient for teaching reading in most cases, but if you really desire a step-by-step hands-on program, the All About Reading program is phenomenal. I haven't used it with my girls, but have reviewed it and have friends that highly recommend it and it is the best reading program I have seen.
2. The first "real" books we love:
Bob books -- these are fabulous little books that the child can read as soon as he starts blending sounds.
Dick and Jane books -- these might seem "old school" but they are seriously the best books for sight words. I have never ever drilled my girls in sight words because they pick them up easily when reading the Dick and Jane books. They also start out super easy and get progressively harder which is great. My girls love the silly stories as well.
Dr. Seuss Beginner Books -- we love them!
3. Once those are mastered:
You Read To Me; I'll Read To You books -- My girls beg to read these with me!
Ready, Set, Read! by Cole -- A great collection of simple children's literature
4. Now ready for anything!
The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury by Schulman -- My 6 year old is currently reading through one story a day from this book with me. Her vocabulary is really expanding while reading great children's literature!
Another great resource:
Explode the Code: These inexpensive workbooks are fantastic for phonics practice. My second child actually read for the first time the day she begged to do Explode the Code like her big sister. We still had more work to do before everything clicked, but she began sounding out words immediately! I will say that with my girls, their brains were ready to read long before their fingers were ready for a lot of writing, so I didn't ask them to write out a lot of the words in ETC until much later. They did all the circling exercises and x-ing out and we just did the writing part out-loud instead of on paper. I did not want to slow down the reading process because writing was still difficult for them.
1. The Reading Lesson Book:
Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading -- this book makes it easy. It teaches all the rules as the child needs to know them. I will admit that it wasn't my girls' favorite initially (because reading is hard work at first and the font is small) but they grew to like it. It calmed my worries because I was afraid that I would forget to teach something important.
and/or
Alphaphonics -- this book has bigger letters so my girls usually like it more initially. It takes a while to get through the first page, but after that, reading has begun! We usually start with this book for a while, but then it gets monotonous so we switch to Ordinary Parents. Once reading has begun, I usually do one reading "lesson" and have them read one "real" book to me each day as well.
Note: These simple reading lesson books are sufficient for teaching reading in most cases, but if you really desire a step-by-step hands-on program, the All About Reading program is phenomenal. I haven't used it with my girls, but have reviewed it and have friends that highly recommend it and it is the best reading program I have seen.
2. The first "real" books we love:
Bob books -- these are fabulous little books that the child can read as soon as he starts blending sounds.
Dick and Jane books -- these might seem "old school" but they are seriously the best books for sight words. I have never ever drilled my girls in sight words because they pick them up easily when reading the Dick and Jane books. They also start out super easy and get progressively harder which is great. My girls love the silly stories as well.
Dr. Seuss Beginner Books -- we love them!
3. Once those are mastered:
You Read To Me; I'll Read To You books -- My girls beg to read these with me!
Ready, Set, Read! by Cole -- A great collection of simple children's literature
4. Now ready for anything!
The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury by Schulman -- My 6 year old is currently reading through one story a day from this book with me. Her vocabulary is really expanding while reading great children's literature!
Another great resource:
Explode the Code: These inexpensive workbooks are fantastic for phonics practice. My second child actually read for the first time the day she begged to do Explode the Code like her big sister. We still had more work to do before everything clicked, but she began sounding out words immediately! I will say that with my girls, their brains were ready to read long before their fingers were ready for a lot of writing, so I didn't ask them to write out a lot of the words in ETC until much later. They did all the circling exercises and x-ing out and we just did the writing part out-loud instead of on paper. I did not want to slow down the reading process because writing was still difficult for them.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Kindergarten and Preschool schedule/ ideas
A friend recently asked what I do all day with my girls because she was wanting to get an idea of pre-school for her older toddler. I thought I'd share my response here:
Our general schedule is very flexible -- I learned not to write specific times because nothing ever goes exactly as planned with so many little ones:
1. breakfast, clean up, get dressed
2. Breakfast notebooks -- I've made notebooks for the big girls with things they are working on: daily calendar counting, weather graph, tracing names and addresses, map tracing, numbers, shapes, colors, etc. Most of the pages I put in sheet protectors and they use dry erase markers everyday and then erase. My Kindergartener also has handwriting, phonics, and math worksheets. My toddler does any number of things during this time: drawing on our dry-erase board, puzzles, taking all the tops off our markers, etc
3. Classical Conversations review - I have a display board that I put their memory work for the week. My toddler actually likes to do this because it is mostly songs to go with each poster and they dance around and sing.
4. Outside time, lunch
5. Naps -- the big girls listen to books on CD for the first hour and then I do the eldest's reading lesson and practice while my toddler is still napping. If she naps long enough we do spelling on the dry erase board which they think is great fun (with my preschooler I usually just give letter sounds or blends and I help her write the letters)
6. Free play or outside time while I cook dinner.
7. eat dinner, clean up for Daddy, play with Daddy, bedtime routine
So that is the general routine (only about 3 days a week, really, because of CC co-op, our mommy playgroup, Sunday, and my husband's day off). My preschooler is at the point now where I write things with a highlighter and she traces it and will attempt a few letters but tires easily and that is fine. The early Bob books (Alphabet and Pre-reading skills) are great for toddlers as well. My girls always loved the tiny books with funny pictures so she might sit for those even if she is not that into reading. Also, my girls loved the Sound Box books by Jane Moncure and they were all at my library so you can probably request them here. You could get a couple a week and focus on those letters with your toddler if you wanted to. But honestly, I've found the easiest way to teach letters is by doing a letter puzzle with them. They learn it without even trying! And then just practice counting up and down in games like hide and seek and whenever you see multiple objects in books. And then just keep lots of books on hand and read as much as she will allow so it comes naturally when she is older. And thats all I can think of for the littles. They really don't need to know much and do too much schoolwork. I personally think playtime is very important at that age! The main thing you need to do is read, read, read to build her vocabulary. Since she doesn’t have a big attention span yet, use books as a transition... one or two before and after naps, mealtimes, playtimes, etc. It helps with the transition to different activities (which is difficult for that age) and soon her attention span will grow and she will be asking you to read more and more books at a time. And really, that is all she needs at this age. Nursery Rhymes are great at this age because it teaches them rhyme and meter. A lot of them don’t make a bit of sense, but the little ones love them, especially if you check out a book that is illustrated beautifully. Also, there is a Wee-Sing nursery rhyme Cd that my girls absolutely LOVE. It has made road trips so much easier and they have memorized tons of them effortlessly.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
One School Year Down and Ready for Another....
As we approach the beginning of a new school year, I decided to evaluate last year and see what I learned... here are my thoughts:
The bottom line? I absolutely LOVE homeschooling! I am passionate about education and get ever so excited about not only what my girls are learning, but also what I am learning in the process! I love having my girls home all day with me and although we've had our share of unproductive or down-right bad days, I wouldn't change it for anything!
My absolute favorite part about homeschooling? Without a doubt it is spending hours of our week snuggling on the couch reading my all time favorite childhood books to my girls. That is definitely my favorite part of our day!
My downfall? Curriculum. I'm a nerd. I love books. I love it all. I want to do it all. I want to buy each book I see. I always plan waaaaay to much. You remember my "great plan" for the beginning of the year? Yeah, I pretty much only followed for a few days. It was too structured for a baby with a changing schedule (who didn't want to follow "my" schedule :). And it didn't leave enough time to take advantage of those "teachable moments" or to really dig in deep to our favorite read-alouds. I was also going to do a "Letter of the Week" theme for Karlie but soon found out that she had learned all of her letters and sounds already from Karis and was pointless. So I just did phonograms with both of them instead.
The best advice given to me? A sweet friend named Jessica who has 3 precious stair-step children (even closer in age than mine!) told me not to try to start it all at once. To start one thing, build it into a routine, and do it well for a week or two or even a month before adding something else. Then work on doing those two things til we were set in the habit and ready to add something else. Very simple, but priceless advice. It worked. My girls thrived on doing the one bit of schoolwork I had them do every morning and then got ever so excited each time I finally added another piece to our routine. We ended up with only 3 real schoolwork periods: a short 10 minute breakfast memory board, a longer reading time on the couch, and a half hour table work time in the afternoon. "Preschool" really doesn't take long. (If you want to see how our schedule ended up, you can clickHERE to see a longer version of this post on my family blog.)
Favorite Curriculum/ Books we used:
For Teaching Karis to Read:
The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading -- the girls loved the initial alphabet rhymes but the reading part was not super exciting. Still, it has a great simple phonics and grammatical progression and is exactly what Karis needs. I am more than happy with it.
Alphaphonics -- I take turns with this and the above to give Karis some variety and to help with fluency. She likes that the letters are larger.
Bob books: She reads me one story each school day and they get progressively more difficult. It has been great to use them as we go through our phonogram cards because she sees how the phonograms help her figure out words. I just get these from the library.
The Writing Road to Reading and phonogram cards -- The book is great and I am certain I will utilize its techniques next year since Karis is actually writing more now. The phonogram cards are key -- there are only about 70 key phonograms in the English language and once a child can recognize them, she can figure out how to read almost any word. They have REALLY helped Karis take off with her reading. We memorize several a week and say them each morning as we do our "breakfast memory board."
Explode the Code Workbooks -- she absolutely LOVES her workbook and I am thrilled with the effortless way it teaches her to read and practice her handwriting as well. This is probably her favorite "reading resource"
Chapter "Read-Alouds": Our favorite part of the day is curling up on the couch with a good book! I absolutely LOVE Sonlight's reading list for preschool and kindergarten. We did not buy the curriculum, but instead I just got most of the books from the library. There are a few great collections that I purchased from Amazon, but most of them are at our library. I also requested books from the library from THIS classical book list.
For this year: We plan to do Classical Conversations for our science and history foundation and I will add read-a-louds and activites to supplement as I have time. (Probably not too many the 1st year as I get used to the program.) I plan to continue with our current phonics materials and Sonlight read-a-louds and add Saxon math to our schedule as well. And I think that should do it! I am very excited about the upcoming school year!
The bottom line? I absolutely LOVE homeschooling! I am passionate about education and get ever so excited about not only what my girls are learning, but also what I am learning in the process! I love having my girls home all day with me and although we've had our share of unproductive or down-right bad days, I wouldn't change it for anything!
My absolute favorite part about homeschooling? Without a doubt it is spending hours of our week snuggling on the couch reading my all time favorite childhood books to my girls. That is definitely my favorite part of our day!
My downfall? Curriculum. I'm a nerd. I love books. I love it all. I want to do it all. I want to buy each book I see. I always plan waaaaay to much. You remember my "great plan" for the beginning of the year? Yeah, I pretty much only followed for a few days. It was too structured for a baby with a changing schedule (who didn't want to follow "my" schedule :). And it didn't leave enough time to take advantage of those "teachable moments" or to really dig in deep to our favorite read-alouds. I was also going to do a "Letter of the Week" theme for Karlie but soon found out that she had learned all of her letters and sounds already from Karis and was pointless. So I just did phonograms with both of them instead.
The best advice given to me? A sweet friend named Jessica who has 3 precious stair-step children (even closer in age than mine!) told me not to try to start it all at once. To start one thing, build it into a routine, and do it well for a week or two or even a month before adding something else. Then work on doing those two things til we were set in the habit and ready to add something else. Very simple, but priceless advice. It worked. My girls thrived on doing the one bit of schoolwork I had them do every morning and then got ever so excited each time I finally added another piece to our routine. We ended up with only 3 real schoolwork periods: a short 10 minute breakfast memory board, a longer reading time on the couch, and a half hour table work time in the afternoon. "Preschool" really doesn't take long. (If you want to see how our schedule ended up, you can clickHERE to see a longer version of this post on my family blog.)
Favorite Curriculum/ Books we used:
For Teaching Karis to Read:
The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading -- the girls loved the initial alphabet rhymes but the reading part was not super exciting. Still, it has a great simple phonics and grammatical progression and is exactly what Karis needs. I am more than happy with it.
Alphaphonics -- I take turns with this and the above to give Karis some variety and to help with fluency. She likes that the letters are larger.
Bob books: She reads me one story each school day and they get progressively more difficult. It has been great to use them as we go through our phonogram cards because she sees how the phonograms help her figure out words. I just get these from the library.
The Writing Road to Reading and phonogram cards -- The book is great and I am certain I will utilize its techniques next year since Karis is actually writing more now. The phonogram cards are key -- there are only about 70 key phonograms in the English language and once a child can recognize them, she can figure out how to read almost any word. They have REALLY helped Karis take off with her reading. We memorize several a week and say them each morning as we do our "breakfast memory board."
Explode the Code Workbooks -- she absolutely LOVES her workbook and I am thrilled with the effortless way it teaches her to read and practice her handwriting as well. This is probably her favorite "reading resource"
Chapter "Read-Alouds": Our favorite part of the day is curling up on the couch with a good book! I absolutely LOVE Sonlight's reading list for preschool and kindergarten. We did not buy the curriculum, but instead I just got most of the books from the library. There are a few great collections that I purchased from Amazon, but most of them are at our library. I also requested books from the library from THIS classical book list.
For this year: We plan to do Classical Conversations for our science and history foundation and I will add read-a-louds and activites to supplement as I have time. (Probably not too many the 1st year as I get used to the program.) I plan to continue with our current phonics materials and Sonlight read-a-louds and add Saxon math to our schedule as well. And I think that should do it! I am very excited about the upcoming school year!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Homeschooling Questionnaire
My friend Krista asked me to answer a few questions about our home-schooling plan for a workshop she is facilitating. I thought I would share my answers here in case it would be helpful to any of you and I would love to read your answers as well. Feel free to answer them on your own blog or in the comments if you have time!
2. What fun projects, unit studies, etc. have you done (or are you planning) that will make great memories?We just started our home-schooling, but I plan to do many seasonal unit studies (like in late September we will do an emphasis on apples where we go pick apples, do apple star painting, make apple pie and apple butter, read books about apples, etc.) I tend to pick a topic that relates to our current situation and then order tons of books from the library about it (For instance, when we went to the NC State zoo, I requested a bunch of books about zoos, zoo-keepers, animals that we saw at the zoo, etc.) I don't really plan out unit studies, because we always just continue with our normal home school schedule (not a unit-study type curriculum), but I supplement a lot with library books to further study whatever is going on in our life. To make fun memories, I like to do a lot of cooking projects, art projects, and trips to fun places like museums, zoos, farms, fairs, and other outdoor destinations.
3. What websites do you use regularly? This could be blogs and other sites for you as well as kid-friendly sites you integrate in learning. I've gotten a LOT of home school ideas off of Pinterest recently -- more than from any one website. We also use You-Tube randomly for videos of whatever we are studying. My kids are younger, though, so I try to keep them away from the TV or computer as much as possible. I'd prefer to show them things in books right now. I'm sure as they grow older that we will use more student-interactive sites.
1. What books and resources do you consider the most important/invaluable as you’ve prepared to homeschool as well as while homeschooling? The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and The Core by Leigh Bortins. They totally changed my perspective on education and I know that I will reference them over and over as we progress to higher grades. I also reference Sonlight's read-aloud list and 1000 Classics Book list each week as I request library books.
2. What fun projects, unit studies, etc. have you done (or are you planning) that will make great memories?We just started our home-schooling, but I plan to do many seasonal unit studies (like in late September we will do an emphasis on apples where we go pick apples, do apple star painting, make apple pie and apple butter, read books about apples, etc.) I tend to pick a topic that relates to our current situation and then order tons of books from the library about it (For instance, when we went to the NC State zoo, I requested a bunch of books about zoos, zoo-keepers, animals that we saw at the zoo, etc.) I don't really plan out unit studies, because we always just continue with our normal home school schedule (not a unit-study type curriculum), but I supplement a lot with library books to further study whatever is going on in our life. To make fun memories, I like to do a lot of cooking projects, art projects, and trips to fun places like museums, zoos, farms, fairs, and other outdoor destinations.
3. What websites do you use regularly? This could be blogs and other sites for you as well as kid-friendly sites you integrate in learning. I've gotten a LOT of home school ideas off of Pinterest recently -- more than from any one website. We also use You-Tube randomly for videos of whatever we are studying. My kids are younger, though, so I try to keep them away from the TV or computer as much as possible. I'd prefer to show them things in books right now. I'm sure as they grow older that we will use more student-interactive sites.
4. What curriculum are you using? Briefly, what are the pros/cons for your family?
Homeschooling preschool has been a new adventure for us but we are really enjoying it! My husband and I decided to try to save money this year, so we did not purchase a full-blown curriculum and I'm kind of just compiling my own. Next year I plan to join a Classical Conversations co-op with my kindergartner but for now, my main goals this year are to read as much as possible and get her used to holding her pencil correctly. We are primarily following Sonlight's read aloud list. I can find most of the books at our library (I can't always find all the great collections, but can usually find the individual books that are in the collections). I am also using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading to give my daughter a solid phonetic background. We are just using some preschool workbooks that I got at the Dollar Store, Target, etc that have mazes, dot to dot, etc, so she can work on her writing skills. I bought a fun calendar at a teacher store so we have calendar time everyday and talk about the weather and also do counting with a number line. I hope to teach her to count backwards from 20 and also count by 10's, 5's, and 2's by the end of the year. We've been usingCuisinaire rods, Pattern blocks, and I'm getting ready to start Inchimals for more math development. A friend gave me the History Cards from Veritas Press so I hope to memorize as many of those as we can this year. And we have map placemats that we talk about at each meal. Other than that, I simply have some fun educational games and puzzles and art supplies that we do.
Pros: less expensive and I don't pay for parts of a curriculum that I won't use. Also, I can totally tailor it to fit my girls' interests and my goals.
Cons: I get a little carried away... since I don't have lessons plans laid out for me, I often plan more than I can accomplish. I get excited about all that I want to do with my girls and then bummed when I run out of time. And I might leave out some things that a full-blown curriculum would include
Homeschooling preschool has been a new adventure for us but we are really enjoying it! My husband and I decided to try to save money this year, so we did not purchase a full-blown curriculum and I'm kind of just compiling my own. Next year I plan to join a Classical Conversations co-op with my kindergartner but for now, my main goals this year are to read as much as possible and get her used to holding her pencil correctly. We are primarily following Sonlight's read aloud list. I can find most of the books at our library (I can't always find all the great collections, but can usually find the individual books that are in the collections). I am also using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading to give my daughter a solid phonetic background. We are just using some preschool workbooks that I got at the Dollar Store, Target, etc that have mazes, dot to dot, etc, so she can work on her writing skills. I bought a fun calendar at a teacher store so we have calendar time everyday and talk about the weather and also do counting with a number line. I hope to teach her to count backwards from 20 and also count by 10's, 5's, and 2's by the end of the year. We've been usingCuisinaire rods, Pattern blocks, and I'm getting ready to start Inchimals for more math development. A friend gave me the History Cards from Veritas Press so I hope to memorize as many of those as we can this year. And we have map placemats that we talk about at each meal. Other than that, I simply have some fun educational games and puzzles and art supplies that we do.
Pros: less expensive and I don't pay for parts of a curriculum that I won't use. Also, I can totally tailor it to fit my girls' interests and my goals.
Cons: I get a little carried away... since I don't have lessons plans laid out for me, I often plan more than I can accomplish. I get excited about all that I want to do with my girls and then bummed when I run out of time. And I might leave out some things that a full-blown curriculum would include
5. How do you balance home school and ministry? I view my family as my main ministry right now and therefore most of my other ministries flow from my home and include my family. I am mentoring a teenage girl who comes over to help with my girls and learn about being a home-maker. She helps my girls with their schoolwork, plays with them outside, and does art projects with them. I also cook a big dinner once a week for 3 single guys and two other couples in our church and my girls often help me fix it. I try to include my girls in all my ministry opportunities.
6. Could you share a story of a triumph or success or something fun or a creative idea or just something that works for your family? I was really excited last week to hear my daughter count to 43 all by herself and all the way to 114 with just a little help transitioning to the next ten (ex. 50, 60, etc). So far, we have only been working on counting to 20 each day and only for a few weeks, but it all of a sudden clicked for her and she understood how to go further! It was just a little triumph but was very exciting to me.
6. Could you share a story of a triumph or success or something fun or a creative idea or just something that works for your family? I was really excited last week to hear my daughter count to 43 all by herself and all the way to 114 with just a little help transitioning to the next ten (ex. 50, 60, etc). So far, we have only been working on counting to 20 each day and only for a few weeks, but it all of a sudden clicked for her and she understood how to go further! It was just a little triumph but was very exciting to me.
We have also been really amazed and excited about the way our 4 and 2 year old have easily memorized large portions of scripture. We are trying to learn a new chapter every few weeks (depending on the length of the chapter.) We simply add one verse each night during our bedtime routine (with motions if applicable) and recite all the previous verses. They really enjoy it and I love that they are getting the larger context of the Bible in their hearts.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
A closer look at our schooling decision...
My educational background is quite diverse: private school in kindergarten, public for 1st and 2nd grade, homeschooled in 3rd, public for 4-5th, homeschooled 6th, private in 7th, and public 8-12th grade. Whew! I know it sounds crazy, but I was actually excited about each change, enjoyed it, and excelled each year. I was Valedictorian of my public high school so I definitely do not think my various schooling methods bothered my education. So I'm a firm believer that a child can do well in any school as long as the parents are highly involved. I totally respect my parents for being willing to do whatever they thought was best for me each year. I doubt I'll switch my girls around quite that much, but I do plan to re-evaluate each year and spend much time in prayer about the decision. I'm very much a fan of the classical-style education and I'm not sure I could do it justice as my girls grow older. Most likely I will home-school in the early years and send them to a private Classical Christian school for at least high school if we can afford it at that time. But we will just take it year by year...
We decided to homeschool this year for several reasons. Since I taught pre-school and loved it, I just can't see paying someone else to teach my daughter. I'm really excited about all the fun things I want to do with Karis! And we really don't have the money right now to pay for preschool. Also, she and Karlie are such great friends that I really hate to separate them right now. They entertain each other so well and I really think that Karlie would be much more of a handful without her big sister to play with. But the main reason I want to keep Karis home with me is so that I can spend more time with her. I want to have more time to cook with her, read more Bible stories, remind her how to peacefully resolve conflicts with her sister, sing with her, encourage her imagination, and so much more! I also think that kids should be kids and have lots of time to just play so I'm just not in any hurry to send her off to school.
Here are some of the things I plan to do with Karis in the fall:
-- Join a local homeschool co-op group that goes on field trips together each month
-- Join a MOPS group so that she will have more opportunity to play with kids her age and so that I can get to know some other Moms in the area
--Read most of the books from the Sonlight 4/5 curriculum (by checking them out at the library or buying them used)
-- Purchase the My Father's World Curriculum to use with her -- I love that it is classically based and is filled with fun, "hands on" activities that she will enjoy!
-- Continue using tracing, dot-to-dot, and other workbooks to develop her writing skills
-- Continue going throughThe Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teach Reading by Wise with Karis
For Kindergarten the following year, I will probably use Handwriting without Tears and Saxon Math (because I used it when I taught preschool and loved the repetition and all the fun manipulatives!)
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